Lately, the conversations happening outside these walls have found their way into the quiet spaces of our family life, and I have caught myself looking differently at the two children growing up in front of me. One is a boy quickly becoming less little than I would like to admit. The other is a three-year-old girl still gloriously convinced that the entire world should know exactly what she thinks of it.

Each November, as Veterans Day draws near, I find myself reflecting on the many faces behind the word service. It’s a word that has quietly shaped every season of my life — as a daughter watching her father lace up his boots, as a wife who knows the rhythm of duty days and homecomings, as a mother teaching her children what it means to belong to something greater than ourselves.